Learning to skip…

No, the next word isn’t “CrossFit.” 🙂 Though today I did manage to “skip” the WOD today. I replaced it with some one-on-one training with Coach Drea at 10:30. Though the day’s workout involved running and/or the assault bike, the last words I heard from my wife were “good luck, dear!” (Never a good sign.)

When I signed up with Drea to do some personal training, we chatted for a long time about the various things I have issues with during workouts. And we settled on running and mobility as a good place to start. Though I have many goats, these are the two that bleat the loudest.

Don’t worry, eventually I’ll get back to the “skipping” title of this post.

So as the 9:30 class finished up (Caleb, Joe, Ashley, and Brent were wrapping up), I slipped in and waited for Drea to free up. It didn’t take long.

We started with 5 minutes on the assault bike. I went about 1.6 miles and hated every minute of it. Something about the motion on the bike really torques off my knees, so it was a challenge. I paused at one point to regain my feet and started again. But I made it. Yay!

After that, it was time for some mobility work. Shoes off. 🙂

First, we used a lacrosse ball on my feet. She had me roll the ball of the foot, the arch, and the heel to try and break up some of the funky fascia that is down there. I really have no arch at all, so that was fun.

Then she had me roll the achilles and calf on both legs for a bit to get them loosened up for what was to come. For the next bit, the shoes were back on…

Remember a couple of weeks ago when she had me try doing a jump rope and stepping forward at the same time? Well… yeah, we went back to some jump rope work today. Started with jumping with two feet, landing on the balls of the feet and rolling down to the heel. That was ok. Then she asked me to shift to jumping on one foot. Yeah, that wasn’t so good. Apparently I have zero dexterity when I start shifting to individual limbs vs. working together.

We did make some progress however, jumping on two feet and moving forward while jump roping. Awkward progress, but progress nonetheless.

Once that was done, we started doing variations on the butt-kicker. One was a kick out and down, another was a knee-down figure 4, and then regular butt-kickers.

After all of that, we moved outside. Her plan was for me to do a 200m fast, then 600m at a recovery pace – four times. It quickly ended up being 400m at a recovery pace, but amounted to the same thing. I started fast and died on that first 200. It’s not like I’m lightning quick either. It was a matter of forgetting to breathe and running tight.

Once that first 200 was done, we slowed down to a crawl for a bit. Still running, but focusing on form, staying loose, and breathing. Some parts were better than others, but I didn’t feel like I was dying – so I’ll take it. 🙂

Lastly she had me voodoo floss my knees. I’m going to have to pick up another voodoo band for home, but it’s a good technique to have in the arsenal. She’s going to chat with Jimmy about how to do ankles too and we’ll work on those as well.

Overall I think it was a good session. Drea seemed pleased. Bill showed up while we were doing our back and forths and joked I looked like Usain Bolt. I told him the only way that would happen was if he was wearing really dark sunglasses and fast forwarded the tape. 🙂

So what’s on the agenda? More mobility work at home, jump rope practice, and running.

But wait! I was going to tell you why I titled this post “Learning to Skip”…

Long ago in the dark ages, I was younger but just as uncoordinated. To get into kindergarten, I had to pass a physical test. I was supposed to “skip” for my teacher.

I had enough issues just walking without tripping, let alone skipping. So my folks brought in an expert – my uncle, who just happened to be a PE teacher. In the front yard, we worked on skipping – literally one step at a time – until I figured it out. He stepped and hopped with me for quite a while as I recall.

Every day I go to CrossFit, I think of Uncle Fred teaching me how to skip because every day I learn how to skip over and over again. Drea is in very good company trying to teach me how to move better. 🙂